Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Rend Collective - The Art of Celebration 2014 English Christian Album Download

The Art of Celebration is the latest Christian Praise & Worship album released by Irish Christian Rock band, Rend Collective. This album was released on March 18, 2014 and released under the label, Integrity Music.

Rend Collective Experiment is an eclectic collective of
multi-instrumentalists from the North of Ireland. An inherent desire for
something spiritually substantive in our increasingly artificial world
is exactly what brought the movement of friends together. United by a
common purpose, these twenty-somethings began exploring the intersection
between God, life and community.

“The Rend Collective Experiment came together as a few friends
started to pray and seek God. We wanted an authentic outworking of our
faith and felt that we would just step out into the unknown and see what
happened,” Gareth shares. “Before we knew it, people just started
gathering around us and we had more than 100 people involved, musicians
and artists, bank workers and teachers, and together we tried to figure
out our faith.”

After many years in Ireland, the band felt the call to step out again
into the unknown as the core 5 of the collective felt they were being
called to reach more people. They have now grown into an international
success with major tours with Chris Tomlin, MercyMe, Tenth Avenue North
and Lecrae under their belts. Their heart is to bring not only a fresh
approach to congregational worship, but also a heart and message through
the spoken word. Their partnerships and tours with church leaders like
Francis Chan, Louie Giglio and Shane Claiborne certainly shows this.

Concerning the band itself Gareth comments,”We are a collective of
people like a family and not just a band. We want our music to be what
we call Organic worship, an honest and natural connection with God,
something which is authentic and not artificial. We want to create an
environment for people to have genuine encounters with Him and to find
themselves singing to Him in ways that they find real”

Homemade Worship by Handmade People

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that anything homemade is
typically better than its slick, factory-produced counterpart. Much like
a handwritten note, a birthday gift that wasn’t procured at the local
mall or a mouthwatering, made-from-scratch meal savored with family and
friends, Irish worship artists Rend Collective Experiment wanted to
approach the follow-up to their universally praised debut, Organic
Family Hymnal, in the same decidedly homespun fashion. So instead of
holing up in a studio for weeks on end, Rend Collective Experiment held
their recording sessions a lot closer to home—namely in Gareth and Ally
Gilkeson’s own living room in Northern Ireland.

For some musicians, working at home would be the very definition of
chaos. But for the group who’s always been less of a band and more of a
family anyway, it was an ideal experience that culminated in the group’s
exquisitely crafted (and appropriately titled) second album, Homemade Worship By Handmade People.

“The best way I could describe it was that we didn’t want to get
involved in any clinical, polished studio where things felt detached
from normal life,” Gareth says. “We wanted things to feel homey, and
there was something intimate about that. Naturally, there were guitars
and instruments everywhere for the better part of six months, and I’m
not sure how my wife [Ally] coped, but it was an experience none of us
will ever forget. It’s a fun way of making music.”

More interested in creating a raw, authentic vibe than necessarily
getting all the technicalities right since they also produced the album,
the aim of Homemade Worship By Handmade People was to write songs with
congregations in mind, and to remind the Church universal that we’re all
unique, valuable and made with God’s own hands.

“We’re all handmade people created by our God who is not safe or
small,” Gareth shares. “Our heart was ultimately to make music that was
sonically creative and pushed the boundaries, but we also wanted to
write something that really served the Church. It’s not us trying to do
something crazy and different for crazy and different’s sake, it’s our
response to a truly magnificent God with a wild imagination.”

What others are saying…

“I LOVE their music, but I was even more impressed with their passion
for Christ,” says Francis Chan. “It’s nice to see a talented young band
that desires Jesus far more than they desire fame, money or anything
else.”

“Rend Collective Experiment is special,” relays David Crowder. “I
don’t intend a clichéd usage of the word ‘special,’ but my hope is for
the word to be fully vested with meaning, as in: Rend Collective
Experiment is better, greater, or otherwise different from what is
usual. And when I say this, I don’t intend to reference the music,
solely. It is immediately apparent that the music is simply an extension
of an approach to life and faith that is equally notable; the music and
life functioning in a symbiotic way, each feeding and sustaining the
other. When given the opportunity to participate in such a thing, I was
honored and humbled.”

“Movements are stimulated and motivated by music, and here’s some
music that will motivate Christians to participate in God’s revolution
in the world. If you are committed to seeing something of the Kingdom of
God made real in our world, this music will go a long way to encourage
you,” Author / Speaker Dr. Tony Campolo.

“This is the freshest and most exciting sound in worship probably
since Delirious? kicked in!” exclaims Adrian Thompson, Kingsway A&R.
“Rend Collective Experiment are precisely at the point where today’s
music culture meets worship – I suppose the musical equivalent of what
people like Rob Bell and Francis Chan are trying to do with Church…I
can’t wait for people to hear this album.”

Tracklisting ::01. Joy02. Burn Like a Star03. My Lighthouse04. More Than Conquerors05. All That I Am06. Immeasurably More07. Finally Free08. Create In Me09. Strength of My Heart10. Simplicity11. Boldly I Approach (The Art of Celebration)12. My Lighthouse [Live]13. Joy [Remix]